


All The Lovers With No Time For Me

by orphan_account



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: M/M, a talking fish, naive joe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-14 09:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8007820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there was one thing Joe Trohman always told himself, it was that he would never let himself fall in love with Pete Wentz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Lovers With No Time For Me

**Author's Note:**

> have my very first wentzman  
> i hope it's good, i was really nervous about this but the first sentence hit me and then everything fell into place from there  
> anyways! enjoy!!

If there was one thing Joe Trohman always told himself, it was that he would never let himself fall in love with Pete Wentz. He was seventeen and had seen enough girls come and go from the older boy’s bedrooms to know he was up to no good. But seventeen year old Joe was… well, seventeen and horny and questioning his sexuality. He didn't know if he liked dudes or chicks or maybe both or maybe neither. He was one big ball of confusion. But there was no part in that confusion that didn't know that falling in love with Pete Wants was a bad decision. His head knew it, his heart knew it. 

But his dick didn't. 

He found Pete Wentz amazingly, uncontrollably, unfathomably, hot. He tried to hide it. Conceal, don't feel. He tried to pretend it wasn't there. But when he had a hand shoved in his boxers and Pete's name on his lips, he couldn't ignore it any longer. 

So during a practice one day, Joe kind of… Tried to low key stare at Pete. He didn't think he was being suspicious, but when Pete left the room with the loud announcement that he had to piss, Patrick pulled Joe aside.

His voice came out in a low, harsh whisper. “Joe. What the fuck is going on between you and Pete?”

Joe froze for what felt like ten minutes but was actually a millisecond. “Uh, what do you mean?”

“I mean, you've been staring at Pete all night and whenever he notices you're looking at him, he fucks up.”

“I- I don't know why, Patrick. I didn't realize I was staring. I've been, um, kinda spacey today.”

“Okay. Well, just… Try not to look at Pete too much, okay?”

Joe swallowed hard. “Okay.”

As he walked away, his mind began racing. Why was Pete fucking up? Was he onto Joe? If so, was he fucking up because he was bothered by that fact? Joe didn't really feel like quitting this band. He had founded it, after all. Pete returned a few minutes later and after Patrick not quite subtly pulled him aside, too, he wouldn't look at Joe at all. 

That kind of hurt the most. Fuck. 

Joe tried to not fuck up too bad but he made more mistakes than he previously had, so when Andy called the practice to an end since he needed to get home, Joe waved bye and bolted, trying not to freak out yet. Pete followed him out, though, quiet but with the intention to talk to Joe.

Joe was loading his guitar case into his car when Pete finally caught up to him and stopped him. “Joe. Joe, wait a minute.”

“What?” Joe slammed the trunk shut, blinking his eyes tiredly. 

“Just… you and I are cool, kind of, right?” Pete was kind of wringing his hands, which, to Joe, seemed odd. 

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“Just this- this dumb thing Patrick said. Don't worry about it. I guess I'll uh… See you whenever, then.”

Joe nodded numbly, moving around Pete to get to the door. He opened it and put one foot in the car before speaking. “Wait. What, uh, did Patrick say to you?”

“It’s fine, kind of. I said not to worry about it.”

“Well I am worried about it.”

“Joe, I don't want to talk about it, okay?” Pete's tone turned harsh and sharp, grating and unfamiliar to Joe's ears. 

“Uh, okay.” Joe got in his car and shut the door before Pete could say anything else.

As he buckled his seatbelt and checked his mirrors, he watched Pete stuff his hands in his pockets to go meet Andy and Patrick. He watched Pete turn and close the door with one last, long, sad look that he probably didn’t think Joe could see. Joe let out a shaky sigh before twisting the key and shoving it into reverse, jerkily backing out and taking off, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel.

That was the first moment he knew he was fucked.

The second wasn’t for a long while. He still would wake up in the morning with Pete’s name on his lips after the best dream, or go to sleep with the same name just uttered and weighing heavy on his heart. It really sucked the most when they went on tour, because those moments were limited. When Pete was just across the aisle, he couldn’t whisper that name ever. He would occasionally get a few moments alone on the bus, when everyone else was out doing something else. But those were few and far between.

You would think maybe that would make things better, because that would keep Pete off his mind. But it only made it worse, because he stopped thinking so much with his dick and… well, with his heart and his head.

So the second moment he knew he was fucked, he was freshly twenty-one and he was standing in a dressing room with all the guys and Pete was shirtless and sweaty. They had just finished the show and Pete had, naturally, been jumping around and spinning and, just… being Pete. So the first thing he had done was whip off his shirt with the exclamation that he was ‘hot as balls’, both in the temperature and the attractive way.

Joe mentally agreed with him, but diverted his gaze to his bottle of water, greedily drinking it in an attempt to not look at Pete. He pulled his phone from his coat nearby, turning it on to check for texts. There were a few from his mom (typical) asking him how he was-- making sure he was hydrating, getting enough sleep, all that stuff. He, naturally, wasn’t, but told his mom he was anyways so she wouldn't worry.

But Joe got so caught up in texting back he didn’t notice Pete creeping up behind him until his arms were around Joe’s body, hands firmly placed on Joe’s chest, crotch aligned with Joe’s butt. Pete, thankfully, didn’t seem to have a hard-on, but Joe sure did.

“Joe, I must say, you have the best tits out of everyone, kind of. Patrick wouldn’t let me touch him so I automatically rated him a zero. Andy’s nice, but his are way too firm. Probably all that sports-y stuff he does. Your’s are just right. It’s like I’m Goldilocks, and you guys are the three bears!”

Patrick yelled an objection to his rating and Andy just cheered, but Joe was not only confused but turned on. That was probably weird. Pete’s warm hands just stayed there as he let out a loud laugh.

“Patrick, sing me a love song.” Pete let out a snort as he began swaying his hips back and forth, leaning his head on Joe’s back.

Patrick began crooning out some song that didn’t really register with Joe because he was more worried about the feeling of Pete’s moving crotch on his ass and his hands on his chest and his own problem in his pants.

He realized then, for the second time, he was fucked.

The third wasn’t until a few years later. It wasn’t as much as a gap from the first to the second, but… then again, there were a lot of smaller moments in those four years. This time, he was twenty-three. He hadn’t whispered Pete’s name in a long, long while and he kind of… thought it had gone away. He still told himself he could never fall in love with Pete, because that was a bad idea. He just… he couldn’t. Every time he thought about it- falling in love with Pete- though his heart wanted it, bad, his head always talked him out of it.

Talking himself out of being in love with Pete was probably one of the most challenging things Joe’d ever had to do up to then. But he knew falling in love would only bring him hurt and heartbreak.

They had been in a bar one night, hanging out with some friends. Joe was tired. Like, really tired. So with an announcement he was leaving, Joe stood and began walking away, letting out a quiet yawn as he went.

“Hey, Joe, wait up.” Pete jogged after Joe as the taller of the two exited the room, running a hand through his mess of curls.

“What’s up?”

“Um… could we talk?”

“Uh, sure.” Joe stopped in his tracks and turned to face Pete, shoving a hand in his pocket.

“Maybe, we could, like… go to one of the busses, kind of? It’s… I dunno, private, I guess.” Pete wore a nervous look and kept glancing back into the room where Patrick and Andy remained.

“Yeah, sure.” Joe just nodded and continued walking towards the bus, letting the sound of their shoes fill the silence. Neither boy said a word as they walked, letting the crickets and bugs outside fill the void. It wasn’t until they were both seated on the couch in the bus and the door was shut before Pete actually said a word.

“So.” He ran a hand through his hair as he sat back, sinking into the couch.

“So.” Joe let out a shaky breath, thinking about how just the previous night he had fought to not think of Pete in his bunk.

“Um… I guess I should just get right to it then, kind of.”

“Yeah…”

“So, uh. I’ll start with this. I- uh…” Pete let out a sigh. “I’m bisexual.”

“Okay.” Joe just nodded and met Pete’s eyes, finding the other boy to look nervous and… downright afraid.

“That went over better than I thought it would. Okay. Anyways, uh… so I like… well, a guy. And… well, you know him.”

Joe frowned a little bit at that. Was Pete confiding in him? Why wouldn’t just talk to Patrick about that? They were practically married, they were so close.

Maybe Patrick was the one he liked.

Joe tried to ignore that thought as Pete continued.

“He’s just, uh… he’s funny, and he’s gorgeous, and he’s smart and talented, and…” Pete let out a small sigh, a half-smile playing on his lips. “I couldn’t live without him.”

He was definitely talking about Patrick. Joe could try to pretend Pete was confessing his love in the… oddest way possible, but he didn’t believe it. Pete was definitely talking about Patrick.

“Yeah? That’s awesome, dude.” Joe just felt his entire body turning numb, starting from his feet and working it’s way up his body. He soon felt the prick of tears behind his eyes gone, the breath earlier shaky in his chest now stable. “When are you gonna tell him?”

“Well, the thing is-”

Pete’s voice was cut off by a sharp ringing sound. Joe felt a vibration on his leg and realized dully his phone was ringing. Excellent chance to escape. He pulled it out to check the caller ID, finding the name ‘Sam’ printed in the tiny, pixelated lettering.

“Um, it’s Sam. I gotta take this.”

“Oh. Uh, okay, I guess, but I want to talk to more later, kind of-”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later, Pete.” Phone in hand, Joe numbly stood and exited the bus, not flipping the phone open until he was a safe distance from the bus.

“Hey!”

Joe had a brief conversation with his brother as he walked away from the bus, not sure where he was going but the only thing he knew was that he had to get away from Pete. In a few moments the call was over and Joe’s phone was safely back in his pocket.

He sighed and stopped where he was standing, finding he stood before a small footbridge. Joe stepped out onto it, listening to the old, damp wood creak with every footstep. He made it to the middle of the bridge before he sat down below the railing, letting his feet hang over the edge. He looked down at the water, at the reflection of the moon and the stars above in it. 

That moment, right then, as Joe stared at the moon’s reflection, was the third, and final big moment that he knew he was totally, utterly fucked. He had betrayed the one thing always told himself- the one cardinal rule, the golden rule, the only thing he had told himself he could never do.

He fell in love with Pete Wentz.

Joe let out a shaky sigh and rested his head on the metal handrail in front of him. He would never say the words out loud to anyone, anywhere, at any time. He wouldn’t even say them when he was alone in a room, in a building. He was always too scared for anyone to hear him.

But at that moment he felt truly alone. Not in a bad way, per say… but he felt like if he spoke, the only thing that would hear his words were the fish in the water and the chirping frogs on the banks. So for the first time in his twenty-three years, in his six years of knowing Pete, he whispered the words.

“I’m in love with Pete Wentz.” He felt as if all the bugs and frogs quieted at his words, as if taking a moment to bow their heads in sorrow, as if they knew everything.

Joe pressed his eyes shut, letting the cool metal and the breeze calm him down from the brink of tears.

It was only about a minute after Joe spoke that he heard someone else’s voice.

“Really?”

Joe thought for a moment that maybe he was high. Was it a fish talking to him? The voice didn’t completely register as anyone. Joe must have been so high he forgot he was high. Holy shit.

So, naturally, Joe responded to the fish he figured was talking to him. “Yeah. I have been for six years. I’m fucked.”

There was a quiet laugh that sounded way too familiar to be a fish and a voice that followed. “Why do you say that?”

“You’re not a talking fish, and I’m not high, am I?”

There was another laugh. “Um, no.” 

The voice finally clicked.

Joe felt a sinking weight in his chest as he realized who was standing near him, talking, laughing. It was the one person he never wanted to hear his words.

Pete.

Joe tried to keep from crying right there, eyes shut, head against the handrail. It didn’t work. Silent tears started creeping down his face and his breathing sped up, turning into sniffles.

“Joe, did you-” Pete stopped. “Wait, are you crying?”

“No.” Joe hastily swiped at his cheek, trying desperately to hide that he was crying because he was twenty three, and he was a man, damn it! He failed, though, because his denial only made him cry harder and soon he was actually making small gasping sounds, tears pouring over his chilled skin.

“Oh, Joe…” There were footsteps and a creak of the wood next to him, then a warm hand on his back. “Joe. Look at me.”

Joe forced his eyes open and he turned to see Pete next to him wearing a soft smile. “I’m s-sorry. I broke my cardinal rule, Pete.” His tears just sped up, falling at alarming rates.

“And what’s that?”

“To not fall in love with you.”

Pete was silent for a moment. “Why?”

“B-because it’s a bad idea. We have the band, and… besides. You could never love me back. Especially not a-after tonight, since you’re all, like… in love with Patrick or whatever.”

“What?”

“Earlier. You were telling me you’re in love with Patrick.”

 

“Joe.. I wasn’t talking about Patrick.”

“Andy, then. Whatever.”

“Joe, I was talking about you.”

That was interesting.

Joe looked up to see Pete with wide, soft eyes and a downturned mouth. “It was a really backwards way to do it, but… I was trying to tell you I love you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

There was a beat of silence before either boy spoke again, letting the frogs and bugs fill the silence.

“So how do we proceed from here? I mean, we’ve both… essentially confessed our love.” Pete’s voice was quiet and unsure and his hand reached for Joe’s unsurely.

Joe took his hand, still unsure himself of what he was doing but… he felt better about it. “Um, I guess now is the part where we kiss.”

“Right.”

“Okay.”

Joe leaned in with eyes closed and pressed his lips to Pete’s, warm and chapped a little. He could hear Pete shakily exhale through his nose and his hand squeeze Joe’s, probably for reassurance that he was doing okay. It was unlike any Pete Joe had ever known, but he was okay with it.

This Pete? That was Joe’s Pete.

They separated after a moment, both grinning wide. “So, uh… what was that bit about the talking fish?”

“I didn’t recognize the voice at first and I thought I was so high I forgot that I was high, so… the talking fish was the only thing that made sense…”

“God, Joe. I love you.”

“I love you too, Pete.”

That was the first moment Joe realized he wasn’t really fucked at all. He was okay.


End file.
